AgWired

There was not much discussion as the full Senate considered and voted on the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 Monday evening, but a few senators had some comments.

Prior to the vote, Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) talked about the hard work the Senate has done to pass the second farm bill in two years and urged the House to do its work. “This bill has been bipartisan from start to finish,” she said. “The House agriculture committee passed a bipartisan farm bill last year but for whatever reason the full House didn’t consider the bill. The good news is this year it looks like it’s going to be different.” Comments by Senator Debbie Stabenow

“It has been 354 days since the Senate passed its last farm bill,” said Senator Amy Klobachar (D-MN). “I would like to get this thing out of the House by the time we head into August.” Comments by Senator Amy Klobachar

Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) was pleased to be part of passing a farm bill in her freshman year. “It is a bill that will send a message to the American people that we need to provide a certainty, we need to do things in a timely fashion,” she said. Comments by Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)

“The Senate has again passed a deficit-reducing, bipartisan bill that will help our farms, our families, our economy, our environment,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) upon passage of the bill. “This bill saves more than $24 billion, it maintains important investments in conservation and nutrition, renewable energy and rural development.” Comments by Senator Sherrod Brown

Only one amendment was considered and passed prior to passage of the full bill, by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT) for a pilot program for rural high speed internet. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) took the floor to urge funding to fight Citrus greening, spread by an insect called a psyllid, which exists now in all the top citrus producing states as well as Alabama, Georgia and Louisiana. The senate farm bill establishes a Citrus Disease Research and Development Trust Fund, but it will have no funding in it unless it is included in the final bill and Nelson received a commitment to achieving that goal from Sen. Stabenow. Sen. Bill Nelson and Sen. Stabenow on Citrus Greening

The Senate passed the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 by a vote of 66 to 27 on Monday evening, putting even more pressure on the House of Representatives to complete its work to get a bill to conference and passed by the end of summer. Representative Vicky Hartzler (R-MO), a member of the House agriculture committee, is hopeful.

“Certainly that should be the goal,” says Rep. Hartzler. “I know the leadership of the House Ag and I think the Senate Ag Committee as well want to see this done and wrapped up by August, so we’re certainly going to try.”

Rep. Hartzler says the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM) of 2013 is a good bill that deserves to pass so she is cautiously optimistic it will once it gets to the floor next week. “But there are going to be a lot of amendments and there is going to be a lot of discussion,” she said. “There’s a lot of controversial aspects to the bill among several members.”

Those controversial issues include food assistance, the dairy program and the sugar program. Even though it is not part of the Senate bill, Hartzler is hopeful that her amendment repealing the catfish inspection program will survive in conference. “It’s a perfect example of wasteful, duplicative government spending and we can’t afford that nowadays,” she said.

Listen to or download interview with Rep. Hartzler: Interview with Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO)